John Hayward, Breitbart National Security Editor

**Nigel Brian Alvey** (0:00)
It's The Hammer and Nigel Show, my name is Nigel Brian Alvey, filling in for Jason Hammer. We'll go straight to the hotline, bring on Breitbart News National Security Deputy Editor, John Hayward. Mr. Hayward, I don't think I've ever heard the words Memorandum of Understanding more in my life than I have this week.
What is a memorandum of understanding, and what deal did the US and Iran sign?

**John Hayward** (0:28)
Well, a memorandum of understanding is not a treaty. It's an agreement. It's supposed to have enforceable provisions, but it's not a ratified treaty. So they're using the phrase a lot to make everybody understand that this isn't a treaty, and that there's more to negotiate, there's more to come, there are more details to be settled. But there are certain provisions that went into effect immediately, like the US blockade being lifted and Iranian ships full of oil are already on the high seas heading for their destinations. So a lot of things happened as a result of it, but the story is not over yet. There are still details to be hammered out.

**Nigel Brian Alvey** (0:58)
And those details, those are something that Donald Trump's getting criticism for. I guess let's start with the bad stuff first, then we'll go in reverse and go with the good stuff last.
What is Donald Trump and the administration being criticized for? Is this, in your opinion, a good start to these negotiations with the memorandum of understanding?

**John Hayward** (1:23)
I think it has to be judged in retrospect once it's over, but the thing that's really drawing criticism is how much of it favors Iran. They got a ceasefire in Lebanon to protect their friends in Hezbollah. That was not something we wanted in that agreement. Israel didn't want it, but it's in there, so that was clearly a sop to Iran. They're getting sanctions relief. They're getting money. There's a $300 billion reconstruction fund that's become a lightning rod for controversy over this because it's a payoff. And President Trump is saying it's their money. We're just going to unfreeze Iranian assets, but still $300 billion they didn't have two months ago, and that's being counted as a loss, you know, marking the bad column for him. And in the meantime, we still don't know what they're going to do with their nuclear program, and it's quite possible, given the history of Iranian negotiations, that they wind up giving us trouble on the subject of their nuclear stuff. At that point, we're supposed to not give them all the sanctions relief that's built into the bill, and that's supposed to be what makes it better than Obama's nuclear deal, which gave them a lot of benefits up front. We'll have to see if that's how it actually plays out.

**SPEAKER_3** (2:22)
Hey, John, it just seems like they did get a lot up front. I mean, there's a lot of, they're able to monetize right away and get back into it, as opposed to just kind of, you know, baby stepping and, you know, giving them a little bit and a little bit and a little bit as they prove themselves moving forward. Because let's face it, historically, they've not been real good playing ball with people. I just feel like, I mean, I'm under the belief there's just more to come, things that we don't know that Trump's working on because it just seems like a lot up front.

**John Hayward** (2:53)
It does. There's a lot of concessions in there, which is why he's being criticized as having lost the war or having settled for a crummy agreement because he was desperate for it to be over because the rest of the world was yelling at him and telling him that all the straight up form of stuff had to be brought to an end. So he took a deal that would allow him to do that. There's some really awkward language in there about how Iran can spend the money however it wants. And the Iranians are already saying, darn right, we're going to send it to Hezbollah and we're going to send it to Shiite militias and we're going to strengthen our power across the Middle East. I hope one of those things we don't know about yet that you just mentioned is that we have plans ready to intercept that. If we can actually catch those balls when they try to send more weapons to Hezbollah and their proxies everywhere, if we can snag the money and the weapons, that would be a huge win. And there wouldn't be much the Iranians could do except fume if we managed to pull that off. And we might be able to because we've got Syria more or less on our side in this now. They don't like the Iranians. And they're the pipeline to get the money into Hezbollah and Lebanon.